Drift Compatible
by Aggressively Hospitable
Summary: When the Wall of Life goes up on the West Coast, Team Scorpion, a world reknowned Jaeger team is moved to Hong Kong where Marshal Gallo is now commanding. But will Walter's complicated history and unique brain composition keep him from saving the world as a Jaeger Pilot? What will happen when he meets the one person who just might be compatible with? Will he take a leap of faith?
1. Fighting Kaiju

Drift Compatible

Chapter 1

Paige sighed as she carried four cups of coffee to her desk, two mugs in each hand with two bagels stacked on each set and an apple held carefully between her teeth. Her phone was buzzing and she knew her son was calling her, which only hurried her steps to her station. She managed to put her things down without spilling and quickly answered the phone.

"Yes, Ralph?"

"Mom, there's a new team coming in from California today; have you met them yet?" he asked excitedly.

"No, not yet," Paige replied with an amused smile. "Why are you so interested in the team from California? You've never shown this much interest in any other team."

"I have to get to school, Mom. I'll see you after," Ralph grumbled instead of responding to her question.

Paige sighed yet again as her son abruptly ended their phone conversation and sat down at her desk. Then she pulled her headset on and began to watch the monitors while eating her apple in silence until she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"They're here," her supervisor said as he nodded toward the elevators where Marshal Gallo stood waiting for her.

"Oh," she replied quickly as she jumped up and grabbed the dossiers before walking up to the Marshal. The team was arriving early apparently.

"Marshal," Paige greeted.

"Officer Dineen," he returned cordially with a nod as he pushed the button on the elevator.

They waited silently until the elevator doors opened, and Marshal Gallo gestured for her to enter first.

When the doors, closed Paige chanced a glance at the Marshal who was watching the elevator numbers light up. She cleared her throat to get his attention.

"Yes, Officer?"

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Paige requested respectfully.

"Permission granted," Gallo replied.

"Sir, why did you request me for this team? There are other J-Tech Technicians who have done this for much longer than I have-" she began before Gallo cut her off.

"Officer, I haven't been here long, but I can spot talent from a thousand miles away. You are one of the best at what you do, and you're also a people-person. I have seen Rangers stay in the drift twice as long and complete their missions because you're there to guide them. This team that is coming in needs you more than you or they realize," he explained.

Paige smiled at the praise but her doubts were far from being chased away.

They stepped off the elevator and walked towards the helicopter landing. Paige clutched the dossiers to her chest to keep them from flying away. It was sunny but windy, and she squinted her eyes in the early morning light as she caught sight of a helicopter coming in for a landing. She took a deep breath and imagined how excited Ralph would probably be if he was there with her. The thought put a gentle smile on her face as she watched the helicopter land and everyone disembark. The first was a dark haired gentleman who turned around to help a larger man get out, the latter of whom barely setting his feet on the ground before vomiting into a bag off to the side. Then a small Korean woman exited with a third gentleman wearing a porkpie hat also appearing close behind her. The group waited for their unsteady companion to regain his composure before going any further.

Paige observed the four curiously, if not also a bit warily, as they finally seemed to regroup and began heading towards her and the Marshal.

"Thank you for coming," Gallo greeted them before turning to Paige. "Officer Dineen, this is Dr. Walter O'Brien, Ranger Happy Quinn, her drift partner Dr. Toby Curtis, and Dr. Sylvester Dodd. They make up Team Scorpion."

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Paige Dineen, and I'll be your Jaeger Technician Chief," Paige introduced herself as she offered her hand to shake all of theirs.

The team nodded and each gave her a quick glance but otherwise didn't say anything in return.

Paige looked to the Marshal for help at the sudden awkwardness.

"Let's get inside," Gallo suggested as he turned and led the way with Paige flanking him.

Walter and the rest of the team followed them inside the LOCCENT.

"She's cute," Happy teased in a whisper to Walter, apparently noticing he hadn't taken his eyes off her since he had shaken her hand.

He tore his gaze away from Paige's back to give Happy an unimpressed look.

"I didn't see a wedding ring either," Toby chimed in.

"Guys, knock it off," Walter warned in a low tone so Paige or Marshal Gallo wouldn't hear.

Once in the elevator, Gallo gestured for Paige to hand out the dossiers.

"Your Jaeger 'Scorpion' will be arriving shortly in Dock B5. I already have a team of technicians at the ready to do whatever repairs and upgrades needed," Marshal Gallo announced before turning his attention to Walter. "I understand you're looking to be a Pilot again."

Walter took a deep breath. "I'm seriously considering it. If I can find a way to pilot a Jaeger solo without killing myself…" he answered, his words laced with something that sounded vaguely like resentment and latent hostility.

"Well until you figure that out, we can start tryouts to see if you can be compatible with anyone here." Gallo replied.

Walter set his jaw and huffed through his nose. "Okay," he muttered.

Five Years Earlier

Walter and his sister Megan walked toward their Jaeger the Bean Neigh, a Scottish folklore term for a death fairy.

"Ready for a showdown, Walt?" Megan asked as she stood on the right side of the Jaeger.

She flexed and fisted her hands a few times, her excitement making her nerves bounce a little more than she thought they should. They were, after all, relatively new pilots, barely graduated from the academy when they were pulled into their first few fights. Walter really should have been the dominant pilot, but he was still too green even though every test had shown that he was one of the more powerful pilots the academy had ever seen. But because of his unique and brilliant nature, he couldn't drift normally. It was only because Megan was his sister that he was able to drift with her at all.

"Absolutely. It's only a category one; should be a piece of cake," Walter answered with a smug grin as he was hooked up to the Jaeger.

"A _large_ category one. Keep your head on, little brother," Megan warned teasingly.

Walter smiled back before he relaxed and took a calming breath, clearing his mind as he waited for Megan to initiate the neural handshake that in turn commenced the neural bridge. Memories of their shared childhood flew from one to the other; their father farming, their mother making Haggis and making both of them gag, playing tag around the small farm house in the country side.

The bridge was established and both Megan and Walter opened their eyes and grinned. Out of their peripheral vision, they watched the floor dropping away, allowing their footholds to move and therefore move the rest of the Jaeger.

"Marshal Gallo on deck," Leon, their J-Tech announced as he gave the comm over to the Marshal to give Megan and Walter their instructions.

"Team Galloway is engaging the Kaiju, codenamed Pillager. Your mission is to maintain the perimeter," Gallo instructed.

"Yes sir," Megan answered and mentally prodded her brother to agree.

"Yes sir," Walter answered a moment later then turned off the comm. "You know the Galloway is ill-equipped. She's had issues with her missile system and she leaks oil like a sieve."

"We have our orders and we should follow them," Megan affirmed, not liking the situation any more than her brother did.

They watched as the Kaiju lifted its large cleaver-like head from the water as they turned their large beacon light on for Galloway's benefit. With one swift ramming of its head, it cut off Galloway's right arm.

"We need to go help them," Walter insisted as his breathing got harder.

Megan turned the comm back on. "Sir, Galloway lost an arm, permission to intervene," Megan requested.

"Permission denied. Galloway still has fight in her, Ranger," Gallo answered firmly.

Walter shifted his weight in his stance anxiously as he watched Pillager pick up the severed arm and whip Galloway with it, knocking the legs out from under her.

"Permission to intervene!" Megan cried out again, voicing Walter's demands screaming in her own head.

"Keep the perimeter!" Gallo repeated. "You have hundreds of thousands of people on shore to protect. That's an order Ranger."

"Fuck this, permission my ass," Megan hissed as she hit the comm off and mentally prodded her brother to start moving with her.

"Bean Neigh, you're being ordered to stop and maintain the perimeter," Leon reminded them, but the bite was out of his tone since he inwardly agreed with what the O'Brien's were doing.

The Killian's, the pilots of the Galloway, were like family to both himself and the O'Brien's.

Megan and Walter ignored the order as they practically ran to the Galloway's side. Three strides away, Pillager muscled Galloway down and crushed their core under a clawed foot, instantly killing them and rendering Galloway completely destroyed.

'Light the bastard up,' Megan nudged Walter as he raised his weaponed arm and fired missile after missile at the Kaiju, who in turn used its massive clawed paws and swiped at them, the tips of which caught the armor and exposed the core.

"Get out of there!" Leon pleaded over the comm.

"No," Megan and Walter both answered as Megan's arm transformed into a giant hammer and did an upswing at the Kaiju's head. It made contact and hit the jaw, breaking it but doing little else besides pissing it off even more.

They deployed body flares to distract it as Megan changed her arm's hand into a talon, and Walter and Megan moved both arms together and sunk in their metal claws into Pillager's head, crushing it's skull and killing it.

Megan and Walter watched with satisfaction as the life drained from the monster's eyes before the entire body became limp.

Usually Walter would be booming with congratulations to himself for once again being the hero and saving the day, but Megan prodded him that they should try to pick up Galloway's remains.

They dropped the lifeless Kaiju into the water and walked over to where parts of Galloway were sticking up from the water. They found the crushed core and head, still attached, eye piece shattered and flooded, the Killians' bodies still in their suits and mostly intact. They cradled the remains and walked back to shore.

The whole way back Walter felt a distinct pain in his extremities. He did a self-check and could tell it wasn't coming from him. The Jaeger doesn't feel pain, which meant that Megan must have been the one in pain. It was as if she had run several marathons before she got into the Jaeger.

"You okay, Megan?" Walter asked out loud.

"I'm fine. Let's just get them back to shore," she answered through gritted teeth.

The Killian's had become like a second set of parents to her, and she was already starting to mourn their loss.

Once they were back in the hanger and the neural bridge had been disintegrated, Walter noticed the pain fade instantly but that Megan still seemed to be struggling. She was crying. He assumed it was because they had lost the Killian's, and so he picked her up and carried her to her room to help her regain her composure. They would be having a funeral in a few days.

Megan was crying for many reasons. She had felt this pain before. She didn't know what it was, and it was scaring her. Today had been the worst she had experienced, and Walter had felt it in the drift. There was no way he wouldn't bring it up later.

A week later, Walter stood next to his sister, clutching her hand and wondering if she could even feel it as she sat on the doctor's examination table.

Dr. Leibendorf entered the room with a grim face, and the siblings immediately braced themselves for the worst. "I'm sorry, Ms. O'Brien, but it appears you have MS," he informed them as he held up pictures from her MRI and pointed to all of the lesions on her brain.

"But none of this was here two years ago when I got an MRI to become a Jaeger Pilot," Megan argued as she looked at them disbelievingly.

"That's because they weren't there two years ago. I suspect the mental and physiological toll from the neural bridge may have been a large factor in the progression of the disease."

"If," Walter began, having difficulty in finding his voice. "If she had never set foot in a Jaeger, would this still have happened?"

"It's hard to say. We can speculate, but what we should be doing is finding a way to make your daily life as manageable and enjoyable as possible," Dr. Leibendorf replied as he addressed Megan, his warm bedside manner appeasing her but not satisfying Walter in the least.

"I want to see all the test results," Walter demanded.

The doctor looked at Megan who nodded her permission before the he handed Walter her file. Walter spent the next few minutes memorizing every page, each one more damning than the next. He handed it back, his anger barely contained in his frame as his brain raced and his consciousness stabbing his heart with guilt.

"We should go," Walter murmured to his sister, taking her hand again and trying to give it a comforting squeeze.

"For now, I think you should start using a cane. If it gets any worse, you may have to use crutches. I have a few medications we can try," the doctor offered.

"Of course, I'll try anything at least once," Megan answered, trying to keep her composure despite feeling numb beyond words.

Hours later, Megan sat on her bed, motionless as she looked at her hands, the crackly feeling moving over the nerve endings like they had been doing for a while now. Tears welled in her eyes as her vision blurred.

Walter came in and she jolted a little at the sound of the door opening.

"I knocked," he stated quietly as he watched his sister wipe away tears that had threatened to fall only moments before.

"Sorry. I didn't hear you," she whispered as she tried to smile for him.

"I did this to you," Walter admitted in a self-depreciating tone as he sat next to her on the bed.

"No you didn't," Megan argued.

"Yes I did," he repeated more firmly. "I was the one who wanted to be a pilot. I was the one that talked you into going to the academy. I was the one who pushed for all of this to happen, and now..." Water's voice trailed off.

"Hey," Megan cut in as she wrapped her arms around him. "You, didn't do this to me. It's my own body betraying me, and it would have happened eventually no matter what," she tried to reason.

"I'll never set foot in a Jaeger again," Walter promised as he hugged his sister back.

"No, don't say that. You are the best pilot this world has ever seen. You just need to find someone else to drift with, that's all. Don't let me stop you from saving the world," Megan encouraged.

Walter considered her for a moment before dropping his shoulders in defeat. "Okay," he muttered.

* * *

_Author's notes- Greatest thanks to Alaburn for betaing this for me. _

_This was a prompt from Tumblr that quickly took over my life. _


	2. Meeting Ralph

Drift Compatible

Chapter 2

Once the meeting had ended, Paige went back to her desk with the intention to finish her few remaining assignments. But Marshal Gallo encouraged her to go 'hang out' with her new team, for the purpose of getting to know them better and thus being a better J-tech for them.

Paige consented and made her way back to the elevators, but once the doors were closed she groaned. "I can already tell they don't like me much," she muttered to herself as she rubbed her temples.

She began quizzing herself on each team member of Team Scorpion as the elevator made its slow progress. Her research showed that they were incorrigible to say the least. They were notorious for not working well with others as well as inventing half the software and hardware used on almost all Jaegers now. But with the Jaeger program coming to a close because of the Wall going up, Paige told herself she should be grateful to be able to work with the legends themselves.

She arrived at their hanger and observed them for a moment as they watched their Jaeger being put into dock. Happy yelled at each and every single one of the guys transporting it to not put a scratch or dent on it or she would skin them all alive.

"You are really protective over your Jaeger," Paige noted as she strode bravely up to them.

"I practically built it myself," Happy defended hotly. "I know every single one of its million and a half rivets, bolts, and screws. I designed it and it has yet to meet a Kaiju it couldn't defeat."

Paige put her hands up in mock surrender. "I didn't mean any disrespect. Most Rangers only care that their Jaeger simply works, so it's nice to see a team care so passionately about their Jaeger," said pacified, causing Happy to visibly relax and back off. "So how did you guys get into the Jaeger Program?" Paige asked the group.

"I'm a mathematician, and the JA recruited me to help them run the numbers for finding a power source to run power to the Jaegers," Sylvester offered.

"Awesome. I heard you were the lead scientist in refining the Jaegers. The more muscle strands, the easier the toll on the pilots," Paige praised and then smiled at the slight blush that crept over his cheeks. Then she turned her attention to the man standing next to him. "Dr. Curtis, right?" she asked as she nodded toward him.

"Yes, but you can call me Toby," he confirmed with a proud smile.

"I understand you had a hand in helping come up with the criteria for what makes a good Jaeger pilot."

"Yes, I did. I did most of the work, honestly. The JA never gives me enough credit," he boasted.

"Didn't you also help set the perimeters for better neural bridges?" she added.

"Someone has done their homework," he said appreciatively.

"A little bit," Paige admitted before turning her attention to the last member of the group. "And Dr. O'Brien, is it?"

"Walter," he corrected, extending his arm for another handshake.

Paige shook his hand and watched as he gave her a rather unsettling smile. It occurred to her that he may have been trying to be charming but was failing miserably. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. It was cute, and in a way its own kind of charming.

"Walter, I understand it was you who put this team together," she remarked once she got herself together.

"Yes. Sylvester and Toby were at JA when I was there, and we formed our own ragtag group. Happy was the lead engineer at my first station," he answered.

"So how did you two get into piloting?" she asked as she gestured to Toby and Happy.

"It was an act of desperation," Happy snorted.

"Actually, Happy had just built the first digital Jaeger," Toby boasted. "It was a scaled down one, but it needed a pilot so she piloted it herself. Then when it got scaled up she needed a co-pilot, and I volunteered and turned out we were drift compatible. It's been smooth sailing ever since."

The rest of the team gave him strange looks while Happy rolled her eyes.

"Not even close, but we worked the kinks out," Happy explained.

"And gained a few," Toby murmured cheekily before Happy elbowed him in the side. "Ow, don't hurt me, baby," he cooed.

"And what about you?" Paige asked as she turned her attention back to Happy.

"No J-tech gets my back story, not even a chief," Happy clipped.

"I wasn't asking your life history," Paige clarified calmly if not just a little dejectedly.

Happy still cut her eyes at her before she turned and watched the crew secure her Jaeger.

"Okay then... I'll just get back to work. This was fun," Paige tried to smooth over as she started backing away.

"Anytime," Sylvester tried to call after her as she walked away.

Toby, Sylvester, and especially Walter glared at Happy once Paige had gone away.

"That was some uncalled for hostility," Toby noted.

"Look, she's a J-tech. They're practically a dime a dozen; she isn't special, not like us," Happy defended.

"Except that Marshal Gallo specifically assigned her to us. He doesn't do stuff like that unless he has a reason," Walter retorted.

"Psh, whatever," Happy blew off as she rolled her eyes.

Then she spotted a technician apparently not being careful enough for her standards and took off to rip the poor guy's head off.

"I thought you were working with her on her hostility," Walter muttered to Toby.

"One day at a time. She misses Leon; she didn't want to come here. Give her some time and space, and she'll come around," Toby explained.

"Well let's hope another Kaiju doesn't come through the breech until then," Walter remarked dryly as Happy walked back to them.

"I crunched the numbers before we left and then again on the way here. The next breech shouldn't be for another week and a half..." Sylvester trailed off as his eyes fixated on a figure trying to spy on them from behind a stack equipment.

Walter frowned at Sylvester until he followed his line of sight. The person looked like a teenage boy, perhaps in his early to mid-teens. Rather thin and scrawny but wiry. He ducked his head and stepped further behind the equipment, trying to hide himself.

Happy huffed and marched over to him. "Yo, you got a problem?" she demanded as she put her hands on her hips.

The young man shook his head 'no' vigorously.

"What are you doing here?" Happy questioned.

"I... wanted to meet Team Scorpion," he admitted.

"Well don't hang in the shadows like that, kid. People will think you're a creeper. Come on," Happy encouraged as she practically dragged the kid back over to the group.

"Hi," the kid offered timidly. "I overheard your conversation, and you're wrong. By my calculations, we have nine days, 18 hours, and 23 minutes."

"And you are?" Toby asked as he raised a curious brow.

"Ralph."

"I take it by your school uniform and backpack that you just got out of school," Toby observed as Ralph nodded.

"So what are you doing down here, kid?" Happy questioned again.

"My mom told me Team Scorpion was coming here and I wanted to see you for myself. You must be Happy Quinn, inventor of the digitized Jaeger, and you also invented the technology that made it possible for Jaeger appendages to be interchangeable as well as transformable. Your work has saved 38 Jaeger Pilots to date."

"Well it's great to meet a fan," Toby replied happily as he reached out to shake the young man's hand.

Ralph smiled brightly and shook his hand back firmly.

"So what algorithms did you use to come to your results?" Sylvester asked.

"Come with me, I'll show you," Ralph offered as he nodded toward the elevators.

The team readily followed him and found themselves in what appeared to be an abandoned classroom with several chalk boards, all of them covered in mathematic equations.

"You did all of this?" Walter inquired as he looked at them all in astonishment.

"Yup," Ralph confirmed with a nod.

"Amazing," Sylvester muttered in awe.

"How old are you?" Walter asked.

"I'll be sixteen in December."

"So you just turned fifteen a few months ago," Walter clarified.

"Yeah," Ralph admitted in a huff of defeat.

"So how long have you and your family been stationed here?" Walter inquired.

"Six years, and it's just my mom and I," Ralph clarified.

"What does your mom do? Is she a pilot?" Walter asked curiously.

"She's a J-tech," he answered.

"So do you want to engineer Jaegers?"

"I already do," Ralph stated. "I'm designing a remote-controlled one, or at least a Jaeger that only needs one pilot, since there are lots of people who would be great pilots if they didn't have to worry about the neural bridge with someone else."

"I've been working on the same thing," Walter admitted excitedly.

"It's an issue that needs to be resolved. That wall isn't going to keep them out, and we will need all the pilots we can get," Ralph insisted.

"I completely agree. See, a fifteen year old has a better grasp of reality than a room full of bureaucratic geezers," Walter asserted before they heard Paige calling for Ralph from the hallway.

"Crap," Ralph whispered to himself as his eyes flickered over to the door.

Walter frowned as he followed Ralph's gaze.

"Ralph, I hope you're in here doing your..." Paige began to say as she opened the door and stopped dead in her tracks, realizing who was in the room with her son. "… Homework," she finished in shock.

"What are you guys doing in here?" Paige posed to the team, who were gaping at her sudden appearance.

"Wait… that's your mom?" Walter questioned, watching as Ralph nodded before he turned to address her. "Your son found us in the loading bay and he wanted to show us his calculations for the next breech," he answered her.

Paige turned to her son with a stern face, causing him to duck his head a little and shove his hands in his pockets.

"I'm sorry he bothered you," Paige apologized tightly.

"No, no, he isn't bothering us at all," Sylvester chimed in as he started to wring his hands, uncomfortable that they had unknowingly gotten their new friend in trouble.

"He's exceptionally brilliant. I'm sure you're very proud," Toby added.

"He is, thank you," Paige accepted graciously, but still didn't move from her spot. "Ralph, it's getting close to dinner time," she said as she gestured for him to come to her. "You can finish your homework in your room."

"Wait," Walter called out as they turned to leave. "We are all a team now, right? We could have dinner together in the mass hall," he suggested. "It would give us a chance to get to know you since you seem to already know a lot about us."

Paige blinked a few times. "Okay..." she agreed hesitantly as she watched her son's face light up for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Ralph practically bolted to his quarters to drop off his backpack and quickly change out of his school uniform before rejoining his mom and the team in the hallway as they waited for him. Walter made several mental notes as to where Paige and Ralph's quarters were in reference to where his own were. They were surprisingly almost neighbors, which brought a few flutters to Walter's core, and which he promptly dismissed as hunger pains.

Once Ralph was back he practically monopolized the team's attention. Paige kept looking at her son strangely. He had never talked this much before, to anyone, ever, except for herself. She watched as the whole team seemed to be almost enchanted with her son. It was like he was one of them. A long lost relative of sorts. She barely said two words the whole time, but she could tell that this was probably going to be the new normal for them.

Over the next few days, Walter made it a point to work as closely as he could with Paige while Ralph seemed to make himself just as much a part of Team Scorpion as all the others. So one day when Walter found himself alone, trying to find a sequencing pattern, it felt odd, and he went off in search of Paige and Ralph. She wasn't at her desk, and after asking a few people he found out it was her day off.

"She's probably in the city," one her co-workers had offered. "She usually spends the whole day with her son on her days off."

Walter nodded in understanding, and on the way back to his quarters, he decided to take a detour to at least try to see if they were home yet. As he knocked, he noticed Paige's neighbor leaving for her shift.

"Excuse me, but do you know Paige and Ralph Dineen?" he asked.

The woman raised a curious brow but slowly nodded warily.

"Do you know where they are?"

"Who are you?" she asked back.

"I'm Walter O'Brien. My team just got here from California..."

"Oh, you're from Team Scorpion," the woman suddenly realized as she relaxed and smiled.

"Yes I am," Walter confirmed with a proud smile.

"They should be getting back from the city any minute, then they'll probably go to the fitness center. Paige likes work out on the elliptical a few times a week, and Ralph has been working really hard trying to build up his strength and stamina. That boy wants to be a pilot so badly," she explained as she turned to him fully.

"He does? I thought he wanted to be an engineer," Walter alleged as he noted her name tag and rank: Kelsey Thomas, Engineer.

"Oh, he wants that too. That boy would BE a Jaeger if he could, but he can't connect," Kelsey furthered as she tapped her head in gesture.

"What?" Walter asked, needing a bit more clarification.

"Ralph is a very special young man. He is incredibly smart and gifted, but sometimes when people are that smart they can't connect emotionally, and from what I understand about Jaeger Pilots, in order to drift, there needs to be some kind of connection. Paige has struggled to connect with him his whole life, so it's impossible for him to connect with anyone else."

"Huh," Walter pondered for a moment as he got a feeling of deja vu passing over him. "So they should be in the fitness center eventually?"

"If they aren't already there," She guessed.

Walter nodded in thanks to her before he walked off toward his quarters to change into some workout clothing. Then he walked into the fitness center to see Paige and Ralph walking on the treadmills and talking to each other quietly.

"Hey, guys, mind if I join you?" Walter asked as he strode up to them.

"Sure," Ralph answered as Walter got on the treadmill next to him.

Paige smiled and noticed that all three of them had begun walking in sync, until Ralph increased the speed on his treadmill so he was going the fastest. Then it was Walter's turn to increase his speed and for Ralph to match him.

Paige rolled her eyes. Men and their need to constantly compete…

This continued until both Ralph and Walter were in dead runs, both running about as fast as they could, breathing hard and sweating profusely. Paige was still walking at a regular pace, watching her son and her new co-worker try to one up each other. She should have been strangely amused and proud that her son had grown physically fit enough to keep up with an adult, if she wasn't so worried that at any minute something would go wrong and they would either do a face plant or break their legs.

"Ralph, slow it down," Paige warned when she noticed others had stopped to stare.

Ralph ignored her and just continued to run, Walter doing the same. Paige then saw little flashing lights from other people's camera phones, recording the scene. Paige glared at them and stopped her treadmill to confront the other people filming. They turned off their phones and put them away, but Walter and Ralph were still running.

"Guys, knock it off!" Paige barked more out of worry than anything.

"Okay," Walter relented as he slammed the button to slow down his treadmill as Ralph did the same.

They came to a stop, both of them breathing heavily but smiling at each other.

"What is wrong with you two?" Paige demanded, putting her hands on her hips as she watched them recover.

"Just some friendly competition," Walter replied.

Ralph nodded in agreement.

Paige huffed and shook her head, trying to fight a grin. Men were impossible sometimes.

* * *

_Author's notes- Thank you so much Alaburn for betaing you're the best. _

_Also thank you Kenadee for reviewing! You were signed in as a guest so I couldn't thank you privately, But a big shout out to you for being the first to review! _


	3. Crusher

Drift Compatible

Chapter 3

It was 4:34 am when the alert rang out. Paige gasped as she bolted upright in bed, eyes immediately darting to the screen lighting up her room blaring the signal of an impending breech. She checked her tablet with Ralph's countdown on it. He had been right. She hurried to get dressed and ready and then ran to get her son. Ralph had already been awake for the last hour, waiting to see if his prediction was right.

"You know the drill. Get to the bunker," Paige ordered as she grabbed her key card and tablet.

Then she hugged him tightly and kissed his brow, whispering an 'I love you' before she left.

Ralph left shortly after her, but not to the bunker. He soon found Walter and the rest of them walking toward Red Scorpion. Sylvester and Walter were already analyzing the data on the Kaiju - code named Crusher.

"It looks top heavy," Walter said.

"But that tail will be a big problem; it's armored and spiked and most likely prehensile. That'll do a number on us," Toby pointed out.

"It looks like half its mass is in the tail; if you manage to cut it off, it'll put it off balance, making it easier to overpower," Walter continued.

"Or, we could just cut off its head or smash its skull," Happy countered.

"No," Ralph argued as he caught up to them.

"Ralph, what are you doing here?" Walter asked. "You should be headed to the bunker."

"But it's a category 4. It has three legs in a tripod formation, which means it should still be able to counter balance if you cut off the tail. Go for the legs, the most forward one, that way it will have to use its tail for balance rather than attack," Ralph suggested.

The group paused for a moment as they seemed to come to realize the simplistic brilliance of Ralph's advice.

"Great job, kid, now go to the bunker before you're caught out here," Happy urged.

"Sylvester, go with him," Walter suggested.

"Gladly," Sylvester replied.

Ralph huffed but obeyed and had Sylvester follow him to the bunker.

Once Walter saw Happy and Toby off, he headed toward the command center to oversee how Paige handled them and to intervene if necessary.

Meanwhile, Toby and Happy dressed into the bodysuits they wore under their Jaeger armor. Happy caught Toby staring several times. It had become the norm now.

"I don't care if I have to say it a million times, you look hotter than hell in Jaeger armor," Toby admitted with an almost lazy looking grin.

"You say that every time; it shouldn't be that special," Happy replied nonchalantly.

"Oh, but it is. My super girlfriend and I saving the world, killing one Kaiju at a time? It doesn't get any better than this."

"Yeah, whatever," she muttered as she tried and failed not to smirk. "Just don't use our sex life as your drifting memories this time, alright? We're here to kill, and we can't afford to get distracted."

"But they're some of my favorite memories," he defended even though he knew she was right.

"Yeah, and if we do our jobs, then maybe we can make more memories when we get back."

"True," Toby relented with a wistful sigh. "That's one of my favorite parts."

"Come on, let's get armored up and kick some ass," Happy prompted.

"You're the boss," Toby agreed as he followed her to the prep room.

After their armor was bolted into place, they grabbed their helmets and headed toward the control head of their Jaeger. They fist bumped before they each took their respective sides and then were further positioned and fastened into the control head.

"Marshal Gallo on deck," Paige announced as Gallo came up to the microphone.

"As I'm sure you've heard, we have a category 4 Kaiju, code named Crusher. Jabari Gamba is to engage past miracle mile. Red Scorpion will assist while Alpha Omega guards miracle mile," Gallo addressed all three Jaeger teams.

Paige, Ashaki, and Egidio, the lead J-techs, took over, coordinating their attacks.

"Ashaki, Crusher has a blind spot from 5-7 o'clock. See if you can make something happen," Paige suggested as she pointed to the holographic image of the Kaiju.

"Got it," Ashaki answered before translating to Jabari Gamba's pilots in Swahili.

"Red Scorpion," Paige addressed as they got closer to the Kaiju. "This Kaiju is built like a tank. All my scans show the armor plating is at least three feet thick, but it should be vulnerable between the armor plates and the undersides of the limbs."

"We can see that. Now let us do our jobs," Happy droned.

"Just trying to help by doing mine," Paige defended calmly before turning the com off and glancing towards Walter, who was standing just a few feet from her.

"Is Ranger Quinn always this pleasant?" she questioned.

"That's as pleasant as she gets."

"Fantastic," she grumbled as she turned back to study the Kaiju's scans, looking for any other weaknesses.

Suddenly, Jabari Gamba engaged the Kaiju by taking a flying leap and utilizing a spear to stab it in the back. As it made contact, a weaponized spearhead exploded like a grenade within the Kaiju's body cavity. The Kaiju bucked like a bronco, whipping its tail around and lashing at the Jaeger as Jabari Gamba jumped back. When the spear was pulled away, a new head replaced the one used from within the staff.

"I want one," Happy said as she stared at the staff longingly.

Then she mentally prodded Toby to use the missiles in his arm. He locked on target with the face of the beast before they began charging at it. The tactic had the desired effect: the missiles didn't do much harm because of the armor plating, but it caused the beast to rear up and expose that tripod arrangement of legs, putting its tail down to keep itself upright.

"Toby," Happy prompted as she put Red Scorpion to its knees to slide under the kaiju.

"Got it," he answered as he wrapped his side of Red Scorpion's arm around the leg while Happy changed her arm to a chainsaw formation and used it to saw off the leg.

Paige watched in astonishment as she realized what they were going to do. "Guys, get out from under it right now. It's too heavy; it's going to crush you."

Happy ignored the warning as she remained focused on cutting the blasted thing off. The leg, however, was more dense than she had anticipated. "Not good," she muttered under her breath.

"Ashaki, get Gamba to keep that Kaiju up and distracted," Paige ordered as she looked at Red Scorpion's power levels, hoping they had enough to finish the task.

Then, using what little controls she had over the Jaeger, sent all other available power to make sure the Jaeger's armor plating was as tight and strong as possible. Ashaki ordered Jabari Gamba to get at the beast's throat to keep it up and to keep it from crushing Red Scorpion. The plating the Kaiju had on its chest wouldn't really allow it to do much damage, but it would help Red Scorpion finish quicker if it didn't have to worry about the beast's attack.

Jabari Gamba used its spear as a brace under the beast's skull but had to contend with the arms trying to swat and claw them away.

"How much longer, Chief? Gamba can't keep that position for too much longer. It's taking too many hits," Ashaki warned Paige.

"Happy, how long till that leg is off?" Paige asked.

"One more minute!" Happy answered before her saw got stuck in the bone. "Shit," she cursed as she yanked it out and began using it as a cleaver, simply hacking at it till it finally broke. "Got it!"

Her exclamation was quickly cut off as the beast purposefully laid itself on top of them in an effort to crush them.

"Scorpion?" Paige called out, bringing up their vital signs and drifting signal to make sure they were still alive.

"Trying to stay alive," Toby gritted out as he held his arm out in a shielding motion to keep the beast from crushing them both.

"Gamba, do whatever it takes to get them out of there!" Paige ordered before looking at Gallo. "Marshal, Alpha Omega needs to intervene," she formally requested as her hand hovered over Alpha Omega's intercom button.

Walter inhaled sharply as he too waited for Gallo's response. The memory of the last time he and his sister were in the Bean Neigh and the disaster that followed resurfaced in his mind. Would Gallo still hold back? Walter readied himself to intervene on Toby and Happy's behalf. Gallo would not hold out on them again, not if he could help it.

He took two steps forward, the harsh words on the tip of his tongue, a burning rage in his chest, ready to do a thorough lashing if need be.

"Permission granted," Gallo allowed without even looking in Walter's direction.

Paige slammed that button and ordered Alpha Omega to come to Red Scorpion's rescue as fast as it could. Then she gave the controls back to Edigio, so he could give them clearer instructions in their native tongue.

Walter blew out a breath of relief while he took a few steps back. Then he watched in astonishment as Paige orchestrated the attack like a well-seasoned composer leading a large orchestra.

His relief was short-lived, however, as the battle suddenly went from bad to worse. Before Alpha could even make it to Scorpion, an explosion erupted from under the Kaiju.

"Red Scorpion, are you alright?" Paige inquired urgently.

"Well, we're not dead yet," Happy replied shortly before yet another explosion.

Gamba stabbed the Kaiju in the rear and another spearhead exploded, causing the rear end to rise and one of Red Scorpion's feet to be exposed. Gamba grabbed it and yanked them out from underneath the Kaiju.

Red Scorpion quickly got to their feet, just in time to see the Kaiju turn around and face them, the spikes on the tail firing at them like missiles. Toby quickly put his arm up again to shield Red Scorpion's face, but a few spikes still embedded themselves in the arm.

"God damn," he grumbled as Happy used her side of Red Scorpion's hand to pull the spikes out.

"Let's return the favor," she said, handing Toby one of the spikes.

Paige's voice sounded over the intercom, "Gil, tell Alpha to get that thing on its back so Scorpion and Gamba can gut it and slit its throat with their plasma lasers, or whatever it takes to finish it off."

Happy looked to Toby in surprise. "I like the way she thinks," she admitted

Then she turned the intercom off instead of giving a status report. They gave Alpha a boost to get the Kaiju on its back, grabbing the arms where they protruded from the body and wrestling it backwards. Gamba used its spear to wedge underneath it, and Scorpion used the Kaiju's own spikes and stabbed the Kaiju on each side of the head before attempting to twist its head off.

With their combined effort, they managed to get the Kaiju off balance and on its side. Gamba stabbed it in the exposed middle of where the leg had been ripped off, then used the exploding spear heads over and over, steadily blasting it from the inside out.

Meanwhile, an impatient Happy aimed her plasma cannon up to the Kaiju's eye and blasted away part of its face.

"I'll get to that brain even if I have to go through the eye socket," Happy seethed as she continued to unload plasma charge after plasma charge until her clip was empty.

But by that point, it had started to bleed out, and Happy, using Red Scorpion's hand, was able reach in, grab the brain, crush it, and then pull it out in a twisting motion.

Paige sat back once all her scans showed the Kaiju was dead and breathed a sigh of relief. It was over.

"Well that was brutal," she commented as she began to log all the data and send messages to the bays to receive the Jaegers and get ready to administer repairs.

Marshal Gallo made it a point to congratulate Paige on being as resourceful and quick thinking as she had been.

"Thank you, Marshal," Paige graciously accepted before Gallo also thanked and congratulated the other J-techs.

"That was... really remarkable," Walter offered as he stepped toward Paige, trying to compliment her.

"And you," Gallo directed at Walter.

"Yes?" Walter replied.

Gallo took one step closer to Walter so that their conversation would stay between them, despite Paige sitting up straighter and straining her ears. "If you ever think of challenging my authority on this bridge again, I will have you scrubbing toilets with toothbrushes. Even though you didn't today, it doesn't mean you weren't ready to. The purpose I serve here is to be a fixed point of authority, and if you can't respect that, I'll have you and your team decommissioned and sent back stateside. Is that clear?"

Walter didn't respond but held a challenging gaze until Gallo leaned in and lifted his hand to arrogantly touch the tip of his ear.

At this point, Paige had peered over her shoulder to lock eyes with Walter, giving him a pleading look.

Walter caught her eyes and relented.

"Yes sir," Walter respectfully, if not begrudgingly, answered.

"Good," Gallo replied before walking away. "Now, I'm going to go back to sleep for a few more hours," he told his second in command as he made his way back to his quarters.

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea," Walter said to Paige as she finished up her work and began to put her monitors to sleep.

"Yeah, but _you_ don't have a teenager that will want to go over every little detail of the fight and get every schematic and go over a thousand and one other ways it could have been handled," Paige remarked wryly as she fought off a yawn.

Dawn was about to break and the skyline was getting lighter and lighter.

"Well I would, I mean, my team and I would love to keep Ralph with us. Give you a chance to get some sleep. You definitely earned it," Walter offered.

Paige mulled it over for a moment. It wouldn't be such a bad idea, they were proving to be a really good influence on him already, and surely they had proven themselves trustworthy. "It doesn't sound like a bad idea, but I still want to see him out of the bunker first."

"We can go together. Sylvester is with him, and I'm sure he'll be happy to hear we had a successful mission," Walter said as he motioned for her to join him.

"Just let me finish up here. It'll only take a moment," she assured him as she finished powering her station down and gave a few parting words to the other J-techs.

Then she left with Walter to head down to the bunker. They watched as it was unloaded and waited patiently for Ralph and Sylvester to appear among those filing out.

Sylvester caught sight of Walter and Paige standing by a wall, obviously waiting for them but deep within their own conversation. He couldn't help the grin that spread on his face as he watched them. Walter's posture and expression while he talked to Paige indicated an attempt to be suave, even though he was probably just coming off as ridiculous. Nevertheless, it was encouraging to at least see him trying to impress a woman. It was something he hadn't seen Walter do in a long time.

Paige looked up and scanned the crowd of faces, first finding Ralph and smiling, visibly relaxing as she blew out a sigh of relief. He was safe and sound, and he looked happy too as he walked with Sylvester, who looked quite relieved to see them too.

"So?" Ralph asked the group.

"We got him. Happy pulled his brains right out of his skull," Walter beamed.

"Cool!" Ralph cheered as Sylvester looked like he was going to be sick, and Paige turned to give Walter a disapproving scowl.

"So hey, your mom said she was pretty tired, so how about you hang out with us while she catches up on her sleep? She really pulled out all the stops today," Walter offered, causing Paige to grin and blush slightly.

"Okay," Ralph agreed readily.

"Well, you guys have fun, and _stay safe,_" Paige cautioned, squeezing her son's hand before turning and heading to her quarters.

"So, Ralph, _someone_ told me you were trying to train to be a drift compatible pilot," Walter hinted as they made their way back to Team Scorpion's area, which they had begun to refer to as 'Main'.

"Yeah, but my mom would never go for it. I have to be seventeen to even try out _with_ her permission. By then there may not be much to even try out for. At the rate that the Jaeger program is going, it may not survive that long. We may not survive that long."

"Just because you can't try out, doesn't mean you can't train, right? At least with the Kwoon part," Walter baited.

"Sure, but with who? If I asked anyone, it would get back to Mom in a heartbeat, and she would probably shut it down. The one person I feel comfortable enough asking would kill me on our first lesson without even trying."

"And who's that?" Sylvester inquired curiously.

"Elaheh," Ralph answered wistfully. "She's in the Junior Jaeger-Pilot program. She's the fiercest fighter I've ever seen, and she scares me," he admitted. "But it won't do any good; Mom would still find out one way or another."

"How do you feel about the 'what she doesn't know won't kill her' theory?" Walter asserted mischievously, running his hands together.

He caught Sylvester's worried glance from the corner of his eye, but he could see Ralph seriously considering it.

"Who would teach me?" Ralph asked.

"I know a couple of Jaeger pilots who would love to take you under their wing."

Ralph grinned and continued to walk with Walter and Sylvester back to their area.

"So where is Toby and Happy? I thought they would be back by now," Ralph asked.

"Uh, they have, certain… _rituals_ they like to perform after each drift," Sylvester tried to politely explain while blushing furiously.

Ralph looked from Sylvester to Walter who was trying to hide his own blush as he busied himself with some papers.

"I've heard some pilots will have residual drifting sensations, and they keep within the same space to enrich the bond," Ralph voiced, still not completely understanding why his friends would have that reaction.

"Look, they may be a while. How about we get some breakfast? It's still early," Sylvester suggested, quickly trying to change the subject.

.

Toby watched Happy closely as they were helped out of their armored gear by the technicians. She was already dictating in what order she wanted repairs done, the upgrades she wanted, how all of it should be done, and what kind of materials it needed to be done with. He was still heady from the effects of the neural bridge and knew she must be too, but she was better at hiding it.

Once they were clear, they wordlessly headed back to their private quarters. She in an all-business fashion, eyes straight ahead with quick, sharp steps; he following closely behind her, eyes on her body as he barely paid attention to anything else.

As soon as the door shut behind them in their room, Happy began stripping her clothes while walking towards the bathroom. Toby helped her remove the specialized suit, hands purposefully grazing her skin as he slid the zippers open. After she was completely bare, he quickly shed his own suit.

"I guess we survived another one," Happy's hoarse voice sounded over the hiss of the water as she turned on the shower.

Toby pressed behind her, sweeping her hair to the side to kiss her neck. "Of course we did," he murmured against her flesh. "There's not a monster in this whole fucking world we can't handle when we're together."

Despite the overconfidence, they both knew they risked their lives every time they went out there. Risked losing each other. The neural bond only fueled what was already present between them: each a desperate need for the other.

Happy turned to face him, finally revealing what she had kept closed up while they had still been around other people. Her walls were down, a burning fire in her eyes, and the metaphorical floodgates opened. She pulled Toby down to kiss her fiercely, their lips tangling. Quickly he lifted her, her legs wrappingaround his waist, the head of his manhood pinned between them as he walked them into to the shower. Immediately he pressed her against the sealed, polished concrete wall as steam surrounded them.

When he entered her, his ears devoured her keen of pleasure and relief as she tilted her head back against the wall. Toby took the invitation to lavish attention to her neck and chest, licking up the column of her neck to kiss her again. They both reveled in the knowledge that they almost didn't get to do this again today if things had gone differently.

"My back's cold, doc," Happy murmured when she broke away for air.

Toby grunted and snaked his hands down to cup her rear, holding her higher and closer against him as he switched their positions. Happy sighed in contentment as she leaned back into the spray of hot water, holding onto Toby's shoulders as she continued to ride him. Toby closed his eyes as he focused on kissing her chest, occasionally getting mouthfuls of water as he did so, but the taste of her skin was just too delicious.

His legs began to grow weary, and since the floor of the shower was also made of concrete, the thought of having sex on it wasn't the most appealing thought, so they ended their shower in favor of finishing on the bed.

They walked over to the bed, Toby laying a few towels down so as to not get the bedding wet before he gently pushed Happy down onto the bed. He laid down next to her, pillowing one of his arms under her head as the other softly caressed down her side, his feather light touch igniting her desires further.

"Toby, I need," Happy began to ask before Toby moved them into position, as if still in the drift and able to read her mind.

He got on his knees while rolling Happy on her back, her wet hair laid out around her as he lifted her hips into his lap and began to pound into her. They were both still slick from the water, so he had to really grasp her hips as he drove into her, their skin slapping loudly. He watched as the rest of her body took and reacted to the impacts of their love making.

Happy grabbed her own breasts, pinching her nipples and gently rolling them between her thumb and forefinger, not only for her own gratification, but also for the pure, unadulterated hunger that it caused in Toby's eyes. He gripped her hips just a bit harder, almost on the threshold of pain, and continued his onslaught before falling forward and taking a now pert nipple into his mouth, planting his forearms on either side of her.

Happy moaned and slid her hands up and down his sides before reaching down to his lower back and raking her nails all the way up to his shoulder blades, eliciting a loud groan from his throat.

"I love it when you do that," Toby growled in her ear.

He leaned up to place his head next to hers before biting her earlobe and moaning helplessly as she did it again. "I'm gonna need a good back scratch if you keep that up," he warned as he nuzzled the juncture of her neck and shoulder, playfully biting down as he felt himself come close to finishing. "What do you need?" he asked, knowing she was close but not as close as he was.

"The pinch," Happy answered desperately.

He sat back up on his knees, still thrusting into her as he reached down between them, finding her clit and doing as she requested. He grinned rakishly as Happy's face morphed in tortured bliss and her hips began to jerk uncontrollably while she clawed at the sheets. Unable to hold back any longer, Toby fell forward once again, bracing himself above her as a few more quick, powerful thrusts brought him his own release.

They laid next to each other during their recovery, savoring the blissful after waves coursing through their veins. Toby made a small trail of kisses all over Happy's neck, shoulder, and cheek as he reached up to stroke her soft but still slightly damp hair.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," she answered softly as he smiled.

Then, remembering his request from before, she reached around his shoulders to soothe his back with light scratches.

"Oh yeah," he sighed, eyes closing in pleasure as he relaxed in her embrace. "Left shoulder blade, left shoulder blade."

Happy giggled and hummed as she followed his directions.

As Walter walked back into Main with Ralph and Sylvester some time later, they found Happy and Toby already situated as if they had been there the whole time. Toby was reading two books at once while Happy worked on something that involved an acetylene torch, her large leather apron and welding mask fastened carefully in place.

"Guys, can we have a group meeting?" Walter called out as they all gathered together. "It seems our friend Ralph wants to be a drift compatible Jaeger Pilot," he began. "And in order to begin the tryout process, he needs to learn Kwoon technique."

"I thought Paige wasn't comfortable with him being a pilot," Happy pointed out.

"But he's practically a consenting adult; he could become a father back stateside, so what's the harm in at least teaching him good self-defense?" Walter reasoned.

"So I suppose you're implying we use the classic 'what she doesn't know won't kill her'. Interesting," Toby noted as he saw through the guise.

"Come on, guys, he needs us," Walter insisted as Ralph tried his best pleading puppy dog impression.

"And if Paige catches us?" Sylvester inquired.

"If she catches us teaching him the Kwoon techniques, we can play it off as simple self-defense. I'm sure he's seen his fair share of them, right?" Walter said, looking to Ralph.

"Actually, most people leave me alone and ignore me," Ralph corrected quietly.

"But still, you need to know how to protect yourself, and the rest of it. Any good engineer or J-tech should know this stuff, right?" Walter continued.

"I'm in," Happy spoke up first.

"Oh hell yeah, I'm in," Toby added.

Everyone then turned to look at a nervous looking Sylvester, who had still yet to say anything.

"If it will really help Ralph in the long run, then I'm in," he hesitantly answered.

Walter smiled. "Great. Let's get to work."

* * *

_Author's notes- thank you so much to Alaburn for being the best beta ever and thank all of you for your patience, so sorry this took forever to update but I haven't given up on this yet. not by a long shot. _


	4. Trust and Lies

Drift Compatible

Chapter 4

Ralph had been training every day. Happy, Toby, and Walter had been putting him through the paces, building his strength and stamina. He was getting good at reading people when practicing fighting, anticipating their possible next moves.

Paige noticed her son was becoming more toned and eating more meat and protein than usual, but she chalked it up to him going through another growth spurt. When she asked about how he spent his time off from school, Ralph would simply tell her he was with Scorpion, talking to them about the next breach. Walter was working on a new single pilot Jaeger, and it would be a bit smaller but would have AI to take on the extra Nero-load. Paige was happy to see her son finally finding people like him and having friends, even if they weren't his own age.

Then came the day for tryouts for Walter's copilot. Paige had helped pick the candidates, often staying up late to go over personality profiles to see if they would at least get along since Walter was, well, Walter. It was difficult, but she had managed to make a decent sized list. When she turned it into Marshal Gallo, he was impressed and informed her that there had been a few volunteers as well. He had already gone over their profiles and approved of them so she didn't have to do anything more.

Page accepted the order and went down to the combat area and stood among Team Scorpion. Ralph was already on the front line. She assumed that he just wanted to see all the action.

She watched, trying not to bite her nails as Walter put down every opponent she had picked in less than 6 or 7 moves. She sighed in defeat, feeling like a failure.

"Where did you _get_ these guys?" Happy asked over her shoulder at Paige, clearly unimpressed with what she saw.

"They had the best personality compatibility out of the available candidates," Paige defended.

"Yeah, but obviously not a physical one. It's okay, Paige, you'll do better next time," Toby tried to reassure her. But it did little to improve her mood.

Then when Marshal called Ralph's name, it snapped Paige out of the lull she was in of trying to rethink possible candidates.

"Wait!" she called out as she fought her way to the mat and looked at the Marshal like he had gone mad.

"Mom," Ralph spoke cautiously as he tried to pull her back to the sidelines.

"Yes, Officer Dineen?" Gallo replied.

"My son is still a minor. I did not sign off on this, nor will I do so. I wasn't even informed of this."

"Ralph volunteered and signed a J36. I approved it personally. It won't hurt to just see what he's capable of. This is only a tryout after all."

Gallo's attempts to reassure Paige were well intended, but it took the combined efforts of Ralph, Toby, and Happy to pull Paige off of the mat. She gave both her son and Walter death glares, promising Walter he would regret it if he hurt her son. She stood just outside the mat, her arms crossed and watched as the match began.

Walter attacked first, an easy block. He was going easy on Ralph. But then Ralph surprised Walter with a much more aggressive counter attack that had Paige's eyes practically pop out of her head in surprise. Where had her son learned such a thing? Then it dawned on her, and she turned to the team, all of whom avoided her gaze.

"You've been training him," Paige hissed to them.

"He wanted to learn. He needed to know self-defense," Happy replied bluntly.

"Bullshit. This isn't self-defense; this is combat, Jaeger training combat. There's a big difference. How could you guys go behind my back like this?" Paige asked, hurt by the betrayal.

She turned her attention back to the match and watched as Ralph was actually giving Walter a run for his money. It was 3-3 tie, and she could tell Ralph was giving his all, even improvising and evading better than all the other opponents. The match lasted longer than it had taken Walter to take down all the other contestants put together. Paige couldn't believe her own eyes. Behind her the team was beaming with pride that their young protégé was doing so well.

"That's all you got?" Ralph taunted Walter.

Then Walter surprised Ralph with a move that none of them had ever seen before, winning the match which brought on the largest applause. But Paige was still pissed at the whole situation. She didn't even wait for the end of the tryouts before hauling Ralph off to their room.

"What the hell were you thinking, Ralph? You can't do this!" Paige shouted as she held firmly onto his shoulders.

"Mom, I want to! I want to be a pilot, and I want to copilot with Walter. You saw how I was the only one who was able to stand up to him."

"That aside, you are still a minor. You should have told me. I can't believe you would keep this from me," Paige ranted. "Not just you, the whole team went behind my back. You all betrayed me. We are supposed to be a team. You can't leave me out on this. We are talking about your life. Every time a pilot steps into a Jaeger, they have a high chance of not stepping off, and I can't lose you. You are all I have," Paige continued as tears fell from her eyes and she reached out and held her son as hard as she could. "I can't lose you," she repeated in a whisper before there was a tentative knock on the door.

Paige looked through the peep hole to see Walter as well as the rest of the team standing off to the side, all looking extremely guilty. She opened the door, ready to rip Walter a new one when he held his hands up in surrender.

"I know we did the wrong thing in not telling you," Walter began.

"Yeah, no kidding," Paige seethed.

"But Ralph is obviously very gifted, and he volunteered. I even tried to dissuade him, but he found that J36 and had it signed and on Marshal's desk before we could try to talk him out of it."

"If you were so against it, you could have refused to spar with him when his name was called," Paige pointed out. "But instead you were all too happy to do so. And who is responsible for teaching him those fighting techniques in the first place?" she demanded as she looked at the rest of the group.

Happy, Toby, and Walter all raised their hands.

"You are all despicable, for going behind my back and betraying me like this, and with my son no less. I will quit and get my son and I back state side as soon as possible if it means keeping him safe," Paige announced before she slammed the door.

Walter banged on the door, imploring her to change her mind into talking about the situation. Ralph went into his room and locked his door, refusing to talk to his mother.

Paige waited until they had all left before she ventured out with her letter of resignation in hand. She marched determinedly to Marshal Gallo's office and knocked quickly but firmly. When she entered his office she practically slammed the letter down on his desk.

"This is my letter of resignation. As of right now, my son and I are going home, back to the United States."

"No, you're not," Gallo countered. "I refuse your resignation. You and your son are not going anywhere."

"Then at least let me quit Team Scorpion. They betrayed me and trained my son behind my back. I can't trust them, I refuse to work with them. Court Marshal me if you want; give me a dishonorable discharge. I will do everything in my power to get myself and my son off of this base," she contested.

"You should thank them. Ralph is one of the best fighters I have seen. Even at his young age, he is gifted. We need him, now more than ever."

"I am not giving up my son to you. He is mine. I gave birth to him, I raised him, I have full parental rights and control. Fuck your J36 form, because the L14 overrules it, and yes, I have signed it and already sent it to headquarters," Paige informed him.

Usually she would never speak to an authority figure like this, but this was her only son and she would be damned if she didn't fight to keep him out of harm's way.

Gallo could tell this was a delicate situation. He was dealing with not just an enraged officer, but a mother protecting her son. He had to calm the whole situation down and fast.

"Paige," Gallo started in a calm, soothing voice. "I know you love your son and want to protect him at all costs, but we are at a point where we need everything we can get. Right now my engineers and builders are building a Jaeger of both Mr. O'Brien and your son's design. We had to spend a fortune just to get the materials. It will be the greatest and safest Jaeger ever. It has more reinforcements than this shatter dome. It has artificial intelligence that even my most highly advanced computers can't match. You should be proud of what your son has done. With this Jaeger and others that we will build after it, we will win this war. I have a plan that with your son's help, will hopefully end it. It will not only save the world but bring world peace with it. Now do you really want to jeopardize that?" Gallo questioned.

Paige narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms at him. How dare he guilt trip her?

Just then there was a frantic knock on the door before Gallo's secretary came in and said that there had been another breach, just minutes ago, but it went straight for Australia. She then turned on the TV in Gallo's office, showing a news report of helicopters tracking the giant beast through the water as it swam toward Sydney.

"What category is that?" Paige asked as she looked at the screen.

"The largest category four to date," Gallo's secretary answered.

"How is that a category four? That should be a category five; it's huge!" Paige argued as they watched it continue to move through the water at incredible speed.

The helicopters couldn't keep up. They had to send jets with cameras mounted on the bottom to keep up with it. Within half an hour it had reached Sydney and broke through the wall, much of the beautiful city destroyed as the local Jaeger teams took it down with great difficulty.

"Officer Dineen, the world needs your son, or else this will happen all around the world. Please, reconsider. Have faith in your son, have faith in your team, don't go," Gallo pleaded softly as he stood next to her while they watched the broadcast.

Paige took a deep breath, willing her eyes not to shed tears as she turned around and took back her letter of resignation. "Swear to me, that no harm will come to my son or heaven help all of you," Paige warned before taking her leave.

"Team meeting!" Paige yelled as she and Ralph knocked on the doors to Team Scorpion's personal residences.

They all opened up and looked at her in awe.

"If we are going to save the world we are doing it together. No more secrets, no more lies, nothing but honesty, got it?" Paige demanded.

"Yeah," they all answered collectively.

"Now, let's get to our base and see how we are going to do it," Paige dictated before leading the way.

"Yes Ma'am," Toby replied with raised eyebrows as they followed her.

Once in the room, Paige had them show her everything they had. All the schematics, all the math and science, mechanics, and prototypes.

Ralph also showed her his graduation certificate. He had taken an exit test from high school as well as the university he was attending and had graduated both with high honors. Walter had helped him study for the exams and was proud that even at Ralph's early age, he had accomplished so much.

"So instead of going to school, you simply graduated and spent your time on all of this," Paige concluded after looking at the certificates, making sure they were legit and not counterfeit.

"Yup," Ralph confirmed.

"Ralph, I wanted to throw you a graduation party and make you a cake and make you wear those little cone hats and..." Paige complained.

"I don't need it, Mom, this is more important," Ralph stated simply.

"Well when this is over, you are having a party. I'm sure there is someone that can dress up like a clown or something, make balloon animals," Paige added, but was surprised when she looked up that everyone was looking at her in horror.

"I'm not eight. That would be horrible, Mom," Ralph deadpanned.

"Fine," Paige conceded. "So show me more about this prototype..."

The next day, Paige was looking through Walter's physical file when she came across something that disturbed her. Walter had piloted with a Mark Collins, another genius, but one with a psych analysis that would tell anyone to steer clear. He had had the same marks most super intelligent serial killers had. How could Walter let someone like that into his head? They had only fought one fight together, but Walter had gone out of alignment and both of them had gone down the rabbit hole, both of them nearly dying. Thank goodness it had been a multi Jaeger fight.

Afterwards, Collins had been institutionalized for insanity. Walter had sustained some mental damage but was able to recover and had not fought again since. It was even noted that no one would even volunteer to try out to copilot with him because of what had happened with Collins. Since then, Walter had simply gone into the science and technology departments.

Paige took Walter outside as the team did their work and research to talk to him.

"Yes?" Walter asked once they were outside.

Paige took out Walter's physical file and had the part where it mentioned Mark Collins and the catastrophe that followed. "Before I let my son even get into a simulator with you, you need to explain this," Paige put to him.

Walter physically deflated and clenched his jaw as he read it over. Paige watched as he seemed to relive it and was getting uncomfortable.

"What...what exactly do you want me to explain?" Walter asked as he snapped the file shut and handed it back to her.

"Ideally, everything. Mark Collins was never in the Jaeger program, had no fighting experience what so ever, but you found a way to circumvent the system and got him in underneath everyone's noses, something you seem to be good at," Paige clarified, a sting to her words that wasn't lost on Walter.

Walter took a deep breath. "Mark Collins was a theoretical physicist. He and I would spend hours and hours going over theories and mathematics, and we clicked. We were both geniuses and Mark wondered about the piloting science. I snuck him in a few times and we hijacked the simulator, and for eleven hours straight we fought. We achieved the highest kill record," Walter began, a small smirk on his face.

"When we came out, we of course had a lot of explaining to do. I begged to have him be my copilot since it was obvious we were drift compatible. But then there was a breach, and at the last minute we were put into a Jaeger. In the neurohandshake, I got to really see into Mark's head. That was when I learned that he didn't want to fight Kaijus; he wanted to go through the portal into the other side. He believed they were the future and would happily hand over mankind to learn more about them, from them, if possible. I disengaged first and realized too late that..." Walter faltered, the smirk gone from his face, instead a deep sadness took over his features as he looked at the ground, unable to look up and into Paige's eyes.

"We went down the rabbit hole and when we were brought in, a psych analysis was done on both of us. I told them everything I saw and felt from Collins and made sure he was put away. He was a danger to everyone around him," Walter explained.

"Your file said that you suffered damage from that incident," Paige said. "Drifting is a two way street. I don't want whatever this psycho put into your head to get into my son's head."

"I swear to you, it won't. I went through therapy, and I have repaired all the damage done by him. Your son is in no danger," Walter implored, this time looking directly into Paige's eyes.

"Okay, but if Ralph so much as has a single nightmare after the simulator, or shows any signs of disturbance, you will have hell to pay," Paige told him warningly.

However, she was satisfied with Walter's explanation, and her faith was beginning to be restored.

* * *

Author's notes- I'm so sorry this has taken FOREVER to update but here is another chapter, betaed and all thanks to the lovely and ever so talented Alaburn.

Thank you so much for reading.


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